how to hand feed my asian red tail catfish

[karas]

I would like to learn how to hand feed my asian red tail catfish. I would be please if you guys help me.

[L number Banana]

Hi Karas,
For hand feeding, take a look at monsterfishkeepers.com, I think they're the only group that has tanks the size of rooms. I suppose not overfeeding will keep your fish small enough not to need a public aquaria for a short while but remember that your hand might taste just as good as fish food..
Also keep in mind that it can eat many items that people keep in there tanks for decor, pots, rocks etc.
Check with the crew at the above link, I'd guess there's tons of info about handfeeding these guys there.

If you want some smaller fish-pets to handfeed, there's tons of normal size catfish that would love your attentions

[MatsP]

Hmm. I don't think it's a REQUIREMENT for having a large tank to be a member of MonsterFishKeepers.com - but yes, ultimately this fish will need quite a big tank. And from what I read, I'm not sure they are a good fish to try to hand-feed. May be nice at small size, but once it grows a bit bigger, it probably won't be happy with that.

--
Mats

[L number Banana]

MatsP wrote:
Hmm. I don't think it's a REQUIREMENT for having a large tank to be a member of MonsterFishKeepers.com -

Oops, I didn't mean it to sound like that. I just meant that since they keep big fish, they usually have very big tanks and many of the youtube handfeeding videos show very large tanks/fish when they're from that group.

[MatsP]

Trust me to misread posts on purpose... ;)

There are certainly a lot of videos of large fish from MonsterFishKeepers. And at least one member that I know of has a tank suitable for the big fish he's keeping... But there are also quite a few that seem to not know how to deal with very large fish. They stick something that grows very large in a tank that for us mortals is large, but compared to the size of the fish (or it's potential size) it's not really adequate.

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Mats

[L number Banana]

Hmm, that's very true. I can see some bozo putting one of the giants in a 55gal and a newbie like me could come along and trust that they must know what they're doing since they're part of a group that has some very skilled members with huge fish. The bozos don't have a little dunce cap icon to warn us

Good point

[Bas Pels]

Actually, just because of those who keep extremely large fish in far too small tanks, without anyone commenting them, I did not join

After all, I could not resist commenting them - and face their scorn

I do have a large tank - 4 * 1 meters footprint, and I do have 2 Pterogoblichthys gibbiceps in it. But the next large fish is only half their length - A Parachromis loissellei male, at some 20 cm.

To me, the tank is too small for large Parachromis, such as P dovii. They keep P dovii in smaller tanks, I'm afraid they think a 8 feet (2.40 meters) tank suffices

On a side note, people who keep large fish to show off are, in my eyes, not worth spending time with

[L number Banana]

Hi Bas,

I hesitated replying to this one and was originally going to say - "Bring it back while you can!" but then I saw that the keeper had already had the fish for a while so I figured maybe sending them off to a place where they could see the size of the fish in captivity might be the better course.

I wish stores wouldn't sell these monsters

Maybe we could someday set up a page that directs new buyers right to a page that explains why the best course of action is to bring it back to the store. I think our only real spot to find this info is in the FAQ but almost nobody gets there right away. Maybe a big red link near the top that says,"Big Catfish? Click here" Jools could set the search tags to help google direct searchers right to that page.
We might be able to save a few people from having to get rid of their pet once it outgrows the tank. What do you think, worth suggesting it to Jools in the suggestions or am I just worrying about the fish too much?

[MatsP]

There is a "big cats sticky" in the South American Catfish section.

And whilst I personally agree with your comments that these large fish should not be available for sale in general (no matter if they come from South America or Asia or elsewhere). The people who ACTUALLY CAN take care of really large fish will also be able to arrange for them to be imported "on demand" - there is really no reason for wholesalers and exporters to catch these fish and sell them on a larger scale, at £15 (US $25 or so) for a 4" fish that will grow to 3-4 ft. Those who can afford spending a thousand times that amount to keep the fish for the first five years will also have the money to pay for individual import of the fish, no doubt about that. Everyone else need not bother.

--
Mats

[L number Banana]

MatsP:

There is a "big cats sticky" in the South American Catfish section.

I knew I'd seen it somewhere, thank you but most newbies who buy these fish wouldn't know that they are South American or Asian or Martian so they wouldn't find that until it was too late. Many newbies would even look under "sharks" because lots of cats have shark in their common name.
Speaking from experience here..

Maybe my idea would use too much valuable webspace on the few people who need the info. We don't even come up on the first google page when you enter the common name of the big cats At least some gigantic cat pics appear at the top so maybe that's enough to scare people away from buying them.

[MatsP]

Unfortunately, I doubt ANYTHING we do here on Planet Catfish will help much in that regard, as most of the ignorance comes from not even knowing that they are buying a catfish, or not understanding much about keeping fish in general (e.g. believing the "it only grows to the size of the tank", whether that is what the shop staff tells them, or their friend said some time ago, or just thinking that themselves...). Unfortunately, until we have world domination and can control the thoughts of people, we can't actually fix that problem.

We can educate those that come here voluntarily before or after buying potentially large fish, but we can't actually fix the problem that people don't know something that, if they knew, would prevent them form doing something stupid. Having good LFS' would help. The Maidenhead Aquatics here in the UK have a policy of not buying fish that grow large. They still have customers asking for large fish... Most of these people probably CAN'T keep them to maturity...

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Mats